Wave: Epidemic
by Mnesia
Summary: The sequel to Wave: Endemic. The wave of change spreads, driving friends and families apart as those fighting for their humanity attempt to control the infection. The surreal, space-born fragments rest in the town of Autumnridge, having planted the seeds of mass transformation. Join the victims of the aftermath as they come together, facing challenges small, large, and awkward.
1. Wall Us Away

**_WALL US AWAY_**

**_Note: _**_Back in business. It's been some time since my last -thing- on the site. That's alright though, it gives me a bit of an opportunity for a fresh start. I'll use that to revisit an aging series that ended in an explosion of weird. Wave: Epidemic will construct social challenges for the main characters, and delve deeper into the mysteries of Laza's arrival on Earth. _

**_DISCLAIMER~! _**

**_I don't own Pokémon. Simple as that._**

* * *

_You know, Drew._

_ You're a little pain sometimes._

_ I love you to death though, and I want you to get back on your feet. I want you to wake up. I know you can do that for me, Drew. I saw you open your eyes._

_ I want you to take advantage of what's been given to you. You're no longer human. You're something so different. Use that. I promise it'll help._

_ Most importantly, I want you to fight back. Maybe you can't do it alone. That's okay. There will be friends along the way. _

_ Don't let that bad person hurt you anymore, Drew. You have to fight him. Fight your way to the top. That should be nothing new to you. It's going to be a lot like that game you play!_

_ Sorta._

_ We'll see each other again someday. Edge, I love you._

…

Sitting with my legs crossed, I pressed my palms into my knees, pushing them into the dusty cement. My back was hunched, eyes fixed on the ground. I felt heavy, and so did my eyelids. And my arms. And my conscience: paranoid. I was paranoid. Was I? Yes. It felt like I needed to be, like the walls were watching. Were they? For all I knew, they were.

Noon blindsided me. The alleyway between the locker rooms and the gym was empty, like it would be during those days at the end of the year where no one gave a damn about showing up. There was a car or three in the old, ruined senior parking lot the district never cared enough to renovate. Zack's truck wasn't one of them, but that was always one of them, and when it was here there were other human beings around me.

Noon made me realize something about Autumnridge: I needed to get away from it. Metedia High wasn't far enough, although it felt that far when you're the only one of your clique who decided to show up. And stay human. Maybe I was full of it, then. Maybe I was already far from Autumnridge in some way. Yeah, I was at Metedia High, and you only came here if you were human. You had lunch alone, because your friends were kidnapped by humans, because they weren't humans.

_Because you were a pussy and you didn't help them._

The walls made me feel like trash today, even though I was blanketed by a self-awareness like none I've ever had and was already making me grind my teeth together. It was hot under this thing—self-awareness—and there was no way of taking it off, because it was my skin. But my skin was bare. There was no fur, no scales, no leaves. I wanted to keep it that way, so I came to school today.

_And so did I. I'm waiting for you to turn into me, Bryan!_

Zombie apocalypse. Biohazard. Science destroys Earth. Zombie apocalypse. 2012. Alien invasion. 2012. 2000. 1984. Zombie apocalypse. Judgment Day. Nuclear fallout. Zombie Apocalypse. 2012. Nope.

That wasn't it. Nope. That wasn't really even close.

_You don't want to be a human, because the thoughts of a man are going to tear you apart from the inside and make you regret ever leaving them in the forest._

I had to get away from here. I wanted to be Bryan, and I couldn't do that here. The walls were talking to everybody, like street dealers: faceless, taking humanity. There was no lunch today. They took that, too.

I hoisted myself up, exhaling, a palm at my forehead. I lifted my head, leaning against the wall behind me, but only because it let me. The month's events kept catching up to a phantom inside of me, forcing me to feel the cold, contorting eyes of a Junior leaving campus, and how his fists gripped the branches so hard. The branches didn't snap. He just lost his fingers and couldn't hold on any longer.

I was wondering how I could have escaped without the walls noticing me. It had to be done during lunch, because they were watching the other students, which came out to a small number anyway. Ten minutes remained before the class bell sounded, and then I would've been herded into a room where four walls effortlessly perused our thoughts and mocked our bodies because our ears were in the wrong spots, or because our tails were cut off before they left our asses. Walls couldn't do anything about us, but they were only at the base of the hierarchy that had this declarative force over our bodies.

I walked away from the gym, backpack strapped over one shoulder as a numb hand held it in place. My first destination was the old lot. With each crunch the gravel made in response to my footsteps, there was a "no". A "no'. "No". No. No. No. No no no. But there were no more walls around me. There were chain link fences and wooden posts and slabs of busted concrete. There was a car or three, or four, now that I had a better view of the parking lot. I had a better view of the treeline, too. That was Autumnridge's woodland. It was where I went with my Circle after class. There were gaps in the thickets beyond the vast, empty space of the abandoned lot. Those were the paths that no one walked down, because they led nowhere, and the woodland wasn't the type of place where you could just turn around and go back the way you came. The way looked different when you came back, which you didn't. You went a different way, and you didn't speak of it when you got home.

I didn't turn my head for a second. I went to the treeline, stopping to take note of the vegetation leaking into the lot, cracks multiplying in the half-ass-phalt—the wordplay sucked, but I thought it anyway. The area didn't look like this at the beginning of the year. These plants advanced like they wanted to fight off the walls for us, because they were the good guys, but the worst things about this—something the walls and the forest didn't compare to in any way—were the meteorites. I wanted to go see one, and it was in the forest.

I passed through the thick brush at the forest floor, straying from the wheel-carved path, because I knew that was bait. I assumed I was safer here than at Metedia High, because the only things breaking were twigs I tread upon instead of the society I was raised in. A spider web, too. That home was now as torn apart as mine. A few strokes across my face did away with the gluey web, but not the bushes clawing at my bare legs. At least there was no fur, no scales, no leaves. And if there were leaves, they weren't mine. The belonged to this wilderness. Life belonged to this wilderness. Size did. It was a place you came to get lost in if you were human. I didn't feel lost, but I felt human. The sensations of a hand across my face and a scrape on the calf told me that much.

My eyelids were heavier. The sun was shy here, and, as it stood, the only differences between a gloomy day and a moonlit night in the thicker parts of the woodland were null and void. I could've slept if I wanted to, and I wanted to, but I wanted to see the meteorite again.

The unpaved path came to a horizontal clearing of dirt and thin arches of willow leaves above. I trusted this road enough to traverse it. For a brief time, I followed the archway, pollen drizzling like snowflakes in front of me. Moths stuttered with whispers of wings beneath breaths of wind and falling leaves. The sun spoke up over them, showing me all of the glistening, wet webs I could wear as an itch if I walked too far from this path. I didn't need to do that. I went where the dirt forked off into a muddy passage, narrow enough for one person to comfortably crouch through.

My friends' backpacks and clothes were still here.

This was where Al and I passed through to help Nick, because we thought someone was giving him trouble. During that experience, I turned back for all of a couple seconds to see that Al had eaten shit, and then I faced forward to see that Nick had eaten shit all the same. But not really. By the time I reached that hood-faring bastard Nick, there was already a rabbit _thing_ in the spot he should've filled, more or less. What really sank me inside was the sight of the thing's head filling his hat, or maybe seeing a blue and black cat _thing_ in the spot Al had bitten dust, or the time where Jovany was just staring at a blue fish with Patricia's pendant, and a red fox with Emelina's hair clip. Get your ass gone, I told him. Haven't seen him since.

...Since I was last here: the Obsidian Circle, a site of rituals that a Native American tribe utilized The place was unusual, with eight black rocks encircling a larger, central piece of stone. The trees surrounding the open area were bent inward, like they were leaning in, listening to whatever was going on at the time. The ground was charred, though moist, like sooty mud. The center of the circle hosted a clear view of the sky, and, as a consequence, took a space rock to the face. The once smooth stone centerpiece was decimated, a glowing, metallic anomaly taking its place, like how the rabbit took Nick's place, or the cat took Al's, or how my friends were taken like animals. That's what this rock meant to me now. It started as an alien artifact of some sort that broke apart, landed in a farm, was touched by this guy's kid brother. 'Rock puts him into a coma, kid's older brother goes missing. If you wanted details, I was the wrong guy. I knew a bit about the crap with Max and his trans-"experimental" cousin Ashley, or Topher, or whatever he or she wanted to be called, because the same ordeal smacked them right on the head.

I knew that no one came to the woodland since the outbreak—since those walls started watching people and telling a higher power to change us. That's probably because they though that being together helps the issue. That's not how it worked.

It was infection. The meteorites started by planting some seed into the brain of that one guy's little brother, and Max as well, which started the infection. Someone brought it to the forest, and the Circle was contaminated. I remembered people dialing 911 in a flurry of trembling hands when it reached their homes and their young son or daughter was on the floor, writhing as he or she was transformed into a mutant animal. So, it struck the hospital. That's when the S.W.A.T. stepped in and decided to play their part in pest control, quarantining the building, then all of Autumnridge, save the forest, the high school, and one of the local grocery stores. They also rounded up the victims of the infection like rabid rats, and took them away to somewhere I'll never be able to go in this skin.

I sat on one of the dark, shiny stones: My stone. It was right at the edge of the clearing's orientation. Al's was across from me. I sat here when I was with the Circle. Like the trees, I leaned forward, hands folded.

Since the outbreak really hit, Autumnridge had been left with a fifth of its population, some of us diseased, the meteorite's bugs eager to puppeteer that sick soul onto my doorstep so that the walls could watch me change away. My place was in one of the "hot zones", as they were labeled. You didn't sleep in a hot zone. You were trapped in a prison of extraterrestrial germs, thinking that, the moment somnolence pulled you under, a violent cracking of your own shifting bones and tearing ligaments would awaken you, or just put you into the sleep you couldn't wake up from. Or some third thing, which, allegedly, happened to Max and that other poor kid.

The walls liked to watch the hot zones, because Metedia was pretty boring to them. You didn't go to school if you were infected. Only a couple transformations ever happened there. It didn't mean they weren't watching you at all times. They just cared a little less when they knew you were going to be okay. The hot zones weren't like that. They were places so poisoned that the water in our pipes was as dangerous as the unsuspecting infected walking in the streets, searching for sanctuary; a safety net that didn't come down on them quite the way the authorities had in mind. If you were smart, you came to the forest, which would've made me an idiot if I wanted to stay human. I liked it here though. There were no walls.

Those ephemeral thoughts of toxic water were a tease to my dry mouth. I left the Obsidian Circle, meteorite's glimmer fresh on my mind, like it mattered to forget, even though I couldn't forget it if I tried. I ignored the Circle's belongings a second time, making my way through the narrow mud passage. I had a place in mind; a nice one. It wasn't as gloomy as the Obsidian Circle, or as the atmosphere of a classroom I should have been in right now. It was the woodland bridge, with its small, man-made promontories overlooking the widest portion of the river. I followed the willow trail again, going the opposite direction. The arches above me started to bend away from the dirt path, as if learning a repulsive thing or two about it. There was nothing wrong with the dirt. It wasn't contaminated. It sloped upward, oaken wood taking its place. It carried itself over the approaching river, leaving the trees and the brush behind, before diving back into another dark woodland.

I was there. Stopping at one of the semi-circle balconies at the midpoint of the bridge, I set my things down beside me and rested my arms on the oak railing, knuckles pushing into my cheek. The wood was warm, the sun's rays notably more extroverted. For some minutes, I was at ease, gaze lost in the tall stalks of grass at both banks of the river. My eyes wandered into the water, descending, catching the shape of a ball. The shape took me from my drowsy trance like a startling tap to the shoulder that should've seemed more like a punch to the gut. One shape was two. Both were blue. The larger of the two had big, round ears and a white belly. The smaller was featureless, its tether to the larger ball unseen.

The creature hadn't taken notice of me. That was because it was as relaxed as I wanted to be. With its tiny appendages as far as they'll go from that round body, it lay undisturbed upon the surface of the water, eyes closed, drifting gently. Infected.

It was alive, but part of me had to make sure. I addressed my presence to the infected with a feigned cough. It took notice, eyes going wide, blinking a few times. It seemed to lift its body slightly to get a better view of me. A shared fascination and fear settled between us.

"You won't report me, will you?" The blue ball spoke quickly, which was a strange puzzle for my ears. Was it a girl, or a boy? Whatever gender, its idea of a greeting was as cringed as I was alarmed to see another living soul in the forest.

"No." I began, leaving some silent air for the thing to huff its breath of relief. "You're safer here than anywhere else in town. How'd you escape?"

"Urm, I swam."

"And ended up here?" I extended my forearms, both laying over the railing.

"It's not easy when you don't have hands. I floated most of the way. Uh, you really won't tell anyone about me, right?"

"I won't, I won't. I don't know what it's like for you, but I lost most of my friends to the officers, so..." I shrugged, eyes closing for a brief moment. "So, you okay?"

"It hurt bad when I was changing. I don't know what to do. If I leave the forest, they'll throw me in a van and take me away. I don't think I want to go away, but I don't know how to live out here on my own. I can't go back and get food, or anything."

The creature didn't want to leave Autumnridge, because it was safe in this forest. I was a human who wanted to leave the town because of the walls and the infected. But the woodland was a place with no walls. I was already fighting a battle to stay human just for the sake of staying human. That felt like enough of a reason to be afraid. If I fought that battle to stay human knowing that it helped the infected live without the fear of capture, I would stay.

"I'll help out." I jumped into that with no time for laments. The blue mouse thing would have frozen if it wasn't at the mercy of the gentle current.

"Serious?"

"Yeah, why not?" I gave something of a reassuring smile.

"Thanks, um," It paused for a few moments, eyes shifting around, searching for greater gratification. "Wow, thank you. You're a good guy, uh..."

"Bryan."

"You're a bro, Bryan. I'm Travis. You from Metedia too?"

"Yep."

That was a discovery well made. A student named Travis went to Metedia High and suffered the change anyway. Offering to help the infected might have been the smartest thing I've done since the outbreak, let alone the only thing. It'd also be the only thing that would keep me in Autumnridge. I'd be human, helping what should've been the Circle, but because I'm human, I didn't end up with them. I ended up with Travis.


	2. Still Something to Lose

_**STILL SOMETHING TO LOSE**_

_**Note: **Happy to be back in Autumnridge! Appreciate the reviews, by the by. _

**_DISCLAIMER:_**

**_I don't own the 'mons. They own me. _**

* * *

I said nothing about Travis. He was bound to face a night alone in the forest, only privileged to hear the sounds of crickets, toads, and the occasional scream from town as the authorities captured infected victims on the streets. We all had that last one. I gathered Travis himself was a part of it. He was lucky, though. He escaped. Now he'd be waiting for me every afternoon by the woodland bridge, so that I could feed him, keep him company, and maybe join him if things went to hell here, if they weren't already at that point. It seemed like a better idea, if I was going to get infected at all, to make the change in safety rather than being wrangled up like a mad dog. I mean, if I did happen to morph and then get taken away, there was a chance I could see the Circle again. It was one of the stranger risks I could've taken.

In the quote unquote safety of my bedroom, I couldn't help but agonize over the idea of the walls knowing my plan and letting me carry it out until I had made enough progress for them to scream "problem". Even if Travis and I did figure something out—I was speaking like I knew the guy—in the woodland, where there were no walls watching, they always seemed omniscient, superior, and one step ahead. Then again, if they were that smart, they would've already read all of our minds, and I would've been screwed. I doubted they were that way, which was why I didn't speak of Travis in the first place.

Family had some significance here. If I told them that I was babysitting someone, slash thing, like Travis, well, I actually had no clue what they would decide to do. Maybe they would've been against the idea, reported infected hiding in the woods, had them captured, followed by being captured themselves. I knew we were walled in for the reason of controlling the outbreak and letting us suffer the illness, so that the big guys could get us out of the way.

Or. Maybe they were totally alright with the idea and had no problem letting me freely wander about the blighted woods.

I was saying "they", when I really meant "she". Mom worked out of town, and none of the guards, or whatever they were called, would have let her go that far. She might have been a carrier. I knew that any uninfected human beyond Autumnridge assumed that much about all of us. And actually, were no mights or maybes. Our transformations were imminent, guaranteed to happen sometime soon, nowhere else but our hometown. Well, Dad happened to work in our hometown. He worked at the hospital. I haven't seen him since the day I fled the Circle's little episode, so I felt is was safe to assume that he was in an autopsy lab somewhere as something other than a man, cut wide open by a bunch of tall guys in yellow hazmat suits.

My brother was around. I mean, he lived here, but given what happened to Dad, I doubted we'd be calling this home for very long. Atti was prone to care less about the thing with Travis than Mom, and that made him a better candidate for support. He didn't have much left to do at the house. Unlike Metedia, the middle school around here was closed off a week after that shit storm at the hospital I was still hearing about. He was in the same position as Mom. Weren't we all? It all came down to waiting for your turn to make the change, or, rather, for the change to make you. Atti acted like he was coping better than any of us here. I wasn't sure with that kid. He was spunky, full of energy and caffeine, but there was a lot of apathy in that package. He might not have been lazy. He was a go-getter, but he had this weird-ass habit of shutting down in situations that threw him so off course from his routine. He would lose his personality; a sentient husk, comforting sometimes, perturbing others, all accompanied by making his room a sanctuary, or prison, for long durations. He never addressed this trait, nor was he bothered about it.

Despite that, I failed to mention anything to him. The remainder of my day was another chunk of hours spent watching muted television. I couldn't stop watching, even though I never paid any attention. Like the days before today, I was only wondering how much longer I would be forced onto campus. How desperate were they to continue teaching us? Or to delay our transformation? Either way, learning more about what happened in the French Revolution or finding trigonometric values wasn't going to change much.

Where school mattered about as much as electricity bills now, I left the TV on for the umpteenth night in a row, catching what little sleep I could.

The next day was none more than a beeline for lunch time, even if the first four classes dragged on to nowhere. Less of us were showing up everyday for obvious reasons. I was pretty impressed with the resilience of my teachers. A good many of them refused to be taken away by the infection, whereas students were having a harder time. Less freedom to wander about, maybe. I didn't think there was discrimination of any sort going on here. You were human or not. Age, ethnicity, or gender didn't matter. Praying didn't matter. Running didn't matter. Learning sure as fuck didn't matter.

So I cast aside all school-related thoughts in that alleyway, a brown paper bag at my side, my backpack on the other. My head was back, eyes rested shut, as one arm was held above a bent knee, the other leg straight. I was sitting against the same wall, because that one liked me, even if it talked a lot of trash. The contents of the paper bag weren't for me. They were for Travis. I could go a while without eating, plus I wasn't surviving out in the wilderness knowing that the second I stepped back onto the tainted streets of town I'd be snagged and hauled away. That guy deserved to be hidden somewhere better than a stinky river. I would've been all for having Travis hide at my place if the disease didn't spread so easily through contact or close quarters. But, again, like many things, that ploy didn't matter when the authorities were doing daily searches of residencies they knew were occupied; life in the hot zone.

"Hot zone" didn't promote any good news for the weather. It wasn't, in fact, hot at all. Today, the skies had a thick gray ceiling threatening to spit its annual November showers at us. (Hah, that reminded me: Halloween was freakin' awesome this year. You should've seen what people went as.) Whatever weather we were in for was fine with me, but maybe not so much with Travis. Who knew? Seeing as how he's formed some sort of relationship with water, maybe it wasn't all that bad.

Ten minutes left until class was back in session. Ten minutes until another hour of hoping that someone didn't come to school sick again. Ten minutes to the forest from here...

_Ten minutes is all it takes to turn into me!_

...I was on my way once again, no doubt in my mind that someone like Travis would be at the same spot. I knew him little, but I knew what the desperation would've been like. Something about us being peers played a role in trustworthiness. I guess it was nice knowing I could've known a guy that I should've known by now. Something like that. A guy I _did_ know dropped by the alleyway before I made my escape, like a planned interception following the script.

"Bryan! You're still up here!"

I was surprised at that tone. He didn't expect to see me up at a place I had been sitting around every day for a year now, which, now that I gave it some thought, made sense. My friends were kind of gone, so I couldn't blame this fellow for thinking that I took off like he did. Well I was just about to.

"Yeah. Hey, where you been?"

"Room 102, Mr. Davidson's."

Danithan paused there. He didn't expect me to know why he was having lunch in my English class, which was ironically to be my next class were I not focused on Travis, which sounded gay as hell. Well, anyway, I didn't remember ever hearing what more than four words sounded like coming from him, so this was all a shocker. He was a friend of Zack's. He was also quiet, and held some kind of world record for wearing sunglasses for the longest time. Probably.

"You should have lunch with all of us. It's a drag out here."

"It feels safe to me." I shrugged, facing the spot I had been sitting, noticing a brown bag all by its lonesome. "Oh, crap." I felt some strong sting of awkwardness as I retrieved the lunch. I appreciated Danithan's tendency to not give two shits about a lot of things, because I really wasn't prepared to tell him where this was going. The expression was, 'Who has two thumbs and doesn't care?'. I was happy he could still answer with 'me'. Thumbs were getting harder to come by.

"Not too much going on though. 'Came back to check and see if you Circle guys were still around." He lifted an arm, palm open to in my direction. "At least someone still is. Hey, you might be interested in what we're doing."

"What's going on?"

"A new club opened up: The Stand. We're a retaliation effort. People are hiding at Metedia, so we're helping keep them away from the authorities."

"What, like infected people?" As if on its own, a brow of mine raised, hoping he would deny.

"No one here's infected. We're keeping it that way. Metedia's more of a safe zone than a high school now, and so far the club's like thirty-five-or-so members strong. Care to join?"

Despite the sound of 'safe zone' having a nicer ring to it than 'hot zone', I had to decline. I liked the idea of the school becoming a bunker. It was badass, but I was getting a little friendlier with the infected than these guys were. Still sounded good if you wanted to stay the species you were born as.

"Sorry, I really gotta be somewhere. I'll check it out tomorrow though. Later." With an overhead peace, I waved him off. I wanted to wish the Stand well because it sounded a lot better what I was doing with my time before yesterday. If I joined that, I might not have been able to help Travis. So it was back to the forest with me. I didn't steer Danithan the wrong way, at least. I heard a friendly 'take care' come from behind. No hard feelings.

The imagery of yesterday became pretty similar to the present, save the heavy overcast. There I was again, leaning on the wooden railing of the bridge's small promontory. Travis was there, taking bites out of a pear held in both paws. On the closest bank was a paper bag all by its lonesome again. 'Felt good that I couldn't ever really reach the point of loneliness. Even if I did get messed up by a sickness that transformed your body, I knew that there was a possibility I'd wash up here.

"How'd you sleep last night?" I asked him, even though I didn't really want to disturb the guy. He was overjoyed to have something to eat.

"It was okay." His mouth was full, so he hesitated for a moment, swallowing and repeating himself. "It was okay. Chilly, but kinda refreshing. I found a nice spot in one of the thicker sections nearby. I made a bed of leaves and slept just fine."

"A bed of leaves?" I looked away, grimacing. "You're really serious about this. 'Might even rain tonight. You sure you're all good?"

"I am! I don't wanna be captured. Besides, I've taken a new liking to water! Perks of being a Marill."

The other eyebrow went up.

"A _what_?" I inquired, forgetting to shut my mouth.

"You know, Marill? The Pokémon?"

I just watched him for what felt like a minute. Slowly, I pushed myself away from the railing, hands still gripping it. My eyes were rolled high as I tried to force every fiber of my being to rationalize the unruly amount of denial within me.

_Oh is THAT what's happening?! Oho! Dude! You're gonna be a Pokémon!_

"How did you...?" I left my thoughts open for Travis. He caught them securely.

"I played the games when I was younger. I stopped after Ruby and Sapphire though. No real reason." Content with his answer, he took another bite of the pear, as I was left to battle with disbelief.

"So are we all changing into Pokémon? Is that what this whole thing's about?"

"Yeah!" He answered with another mouthful of fruit. "You didn't know? It's been all over the news and stuff."

My TV was muted. My mistake.

"I haven't heard anyone at Metedia talk about that." Right about now, I expected to be called a dumbass by Nick. I didn't hear anything about Pokémon because I had isolated myself from people. Sure, there were some students left in the classes I had, but they were all as secluded as I was, were they not already with the Stand, if that changed them any. I guess the Stand was all about keeping away from change though.

"Unlucky, maybe?" Travis claimed, which was a lot nicer than anything the Circle would've had to say. I missed that, but I didn't complain. Travis was cute, made so by the infection. That's all I knew him by.

"Something like that, yeah. Yo, I'd hang out longer, but I'm afraid I might catch the flu."

"Huh? Oh, you're leaving now?"

"Sorry, I gotta make sure things are okay back home too."

"You're right. Don't you live in a hot zone?"

Well, I survived in one, but I didn't put it that way for him.

"Yeah. So I'll see you tomorrow. Same time, same place?"

"Sure sure, if you don't mind! Thanks again for doing this. I know it's a stretch getting by the authorities."

"Not at all, if you know the right path to take. Hey, see you around."

"Take it easy, Bryan!"

Bidding each other friendly farewells under sinister skies, I left the "Marill" to his lunch, hoping he'd make better use of it than me: the host of a stomach in knots. It was time to return home to the slums of sickness. Of all the things that sickness entailed, I would have never thought it was Pokémon. It was my fault for not keeping my ears open, or doing my research. I was treating the infection like it meant death. No. That was wrong. The misconception's all the fault of the authorities taking the Pokémon-turned people away, the walls, the pain, the meteorites.

Returning home to a panicked mother on her knees attempting to open a locked bedroom door boded about as well as anything could have in a hot zone. She may have been more suspicious with my early return home from Metedia if not so absorbed in the process of picking my brother's locked door. Yesterday's story was that my seventh period class was canceled. I might as well have just told her that the teacher got transformed, and kinda lost his job because of that.

I approached her with a greeting, as not to startle her.

"Mom, what're you doing?"

"Bryan? Bryan! Atti locked himself in and won't respond to me."

"Alright, so he's asleep then?" I scoffed, knowing that Atti never slept during the day, and that this was about to be the reply from Mom.

"You know your brother doesn't take naps. I've been calling him for hours now."

"Mmgh." I grunted, crouching to her level and watching the doorknob closely. "Any luck on this thing?"

"I'll get it, I'll get it. Couldn't find the spare key. 'Been doing this for ten minutes or so."

And it seemed like another ten minutes scraped on before she finally opened the freaking thing. I could have only imagined how satisfying the relenting lock could've felt to her, or if it was satisfying at all. I knew that it was nice to break down whatever barrier my brother was trying to build up to hide himself in.

Mom was stammering before I could enter the room. She stood in my way, petrified. Being the wide woman she was, pushing past was more of a verbal endeavor than anything. Upon passing her, I had second thoughts. I was in range of the infection, of my brother. I think. The short distance of his quaint, dimly lit room was separating us from something, presumably a Pokémon, sitting against Atti's pillow, legs out, staring back at us with dizzy eyes shut halfway.

"Atti?" I took a step back, head lowered with my gaze locked on the thing.

"Don't." He started, lifting a blanket over his small body with brown, stumpy arms. The blanket simply slid off of him, covering only his legs, clawed feet still showing through. "Don't look."

"Atti, hon?" Mom made her own call. "Is that you? Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh, it's okay. I'm alright."

He looked far from it. Atti looked like some kind of rodent with short, light brown fur, a bright green "cap" on the top of his rounder head. On that cap appeared to be leaves, two in the form of long ears, three others in the back sticking up, and two smaller 'whiskers' at his cheeks. The cap looked like sort of shell, continuing down his back into a thin orange-tipped tail, resembling that of an armadillo's. On his face were three darker brown triangles, one at his forehead, the others on his cheeks.

"The house got hit with it, h-how did the house get hit with it?!" I cried out, turning to my mother as if she had a panacea to this.

"Bryan, take Atti and hide him somewhere good. They took Charles, but they are not taking Atticus."

"I can't touch him! That's how it spreads! I touch him, I'm next."

"So one of the things got into the house? Did one of the authorities bring the cold in there when they were searching? Atti! Did you go outside?"

"Not for very long. One of the guys touched my arm and led me back home. Is that how I got it?"

"Maybe he was infected." I shook my head, a hand over my mouth. "Crap. Crap it all. Alright, I'll find a place for you, dude. Come here. Mom, don't get too close. Same with you, Atti. Keep your distance. "

"You say it like you're the one who caught this." Atti frowned, throwing the blanket off of himself. He jumped off of the bed, which was a length taller than him now. Wobbling clumsily, my infected brother came closer. Mom and I backed away like we were avoiding trouble with angry bulls, or something like that. Given enough space, I guided him to my room, making sure I was at one end of it while he was at the other. He gave the empty space a glance, searching for some decent spot to bury himself in. He was small, so that wasn't a big issue.

"Dude, if you even think about hiding under my bed, I'll kick you out."

"Followed by screaming and hurting and then changing? Good plan, Bry, good plan!"

"Urgh, can't believe you just went out there to frolic. Look at you! You're one of 'em now!"

"Stop , don't remind me. I haven't seen myself yet, but I'm sure I look stupid."

"Well, here, just..." I searched for some kind of valid hiding spot that wasn't the closet. I ended up picking that anyway. "Pull the closet open, make yourself comfy, and shut up for a night, if you can. They don't check my closet, just Mom's. If they ask where you are, we'll say you were caught, or... or something—I don't know."

"Won't it infect everything I touch?"

"I'll avoid it all if I have to. We're not losing you, Atti. I've—we've lost enough, so please, man..."

"I know, I know. I don't want to go either." With some reluctance, the kid pulled open the sliding closet door, stepping inside after giving his paws a quick examination. As he walled himself away, I caught a glimpse of my mom standing at my doorway, before I collapsed onto my bed, sitting back and taking a deep breath, waiting for another sleepless night to take its toll on all three of us.

With each day that passed, I sheltered a new victim. So, if patterns meant anything in this day and age, tomorrow would come with a third sicko. Somehow. Maybe I was the third. Whatever happened, I had a plan for Atti. Sure enough, my plan for him looked a lot like what I was doing down at the forest with Travis. Also sure enough, I was bound to have trouble getting Atti to the forest tomorrow, which was feeling a lot more like a day off from school now.

I wished the Circle would have stopped dickin' around, being dissected.

They weren't being dissected, I don't think. They wouldn't have given anyone good data, if I knew 'em. They were full of shit, after all, and that's why I loved those guys.

Instead of being with them, I was stuck with what might've been the messiest escort mission in history.

Yes, the authorities came that night. They were getting lazier. These guys knew that the pressure of the infection and their oppression over us sucked the spirit right out of the residents. We weren't hiding anything anymore. We were giving up. Most of us. Not me. I had Atti still. I had him, Travis, and my mom. I had me. I wasn't someone with nothing to lose.

Atti: Chespin


	3. Just Like Old Times

_**JUST LIKE OLD TIMES**_

_**Note:** At the end of the chapter is where that big, glorious title "Wave: Epidemic" spans the screen, and things start kicking off. How delicious. _

_**DISCLAIMER:**_

_**I'm guarantee you that Pokémon are not owned by me. Because that would be ridiculous. The company would not be successful otherwise.**_

_**OR WOULD IT?**_

_**Probably not.**_

* * *

My own brother, Atti, felt the shift. The walls were laughing at both of us. For a whole night, he was crammed into a closet, making a bed among a pile of shoes and hangers, rubber band balls and dirty secrets I forgot I had. They were just like him; a secret, something to keep locked away. Far away. For as long as it took.

There was a better place than the closet. There was the woodland, where Travis was. Atti didn't go there a whole lot, but having the freedom to roam about sounded a lot better than being trapped inside of a hole in a wall, more or less. The forest would've given room to breathe, in more ways than one. It would've given him a friend who's shared the same experience. I asked Atti about his transformation, but everything he told me sounded like some lucid dream, or nightmare. Naturally, I couldn't understand something like that. Turning into a Pokémon seemed like the sort of thing you needed to trudge through yourself in order to get the full picture. I already knew that you didn't just go poof in a puff of sparkly dust and happen to emerge as a cute thing. From what I've been seeing, your body was bent into that smaller, or larger in some cases, shape, no matter what it took. Everyone survived the metamorphosis, I think. Some phantom fox made sure of that. I had no friggin' clue who this ghost fox was, but based on my bro, he was showing up to the infected exclusively. You saw him before you changed. So, when you saw this thing, you knew it was too late. That was good information. I wasn't infected just yet.

The night, or day, Atti changed, I had no sleep. Usually, I would've caught a few hours of shuteye, but the fear that came with the idea of an infected in your own bedroom had the better of me. I didn't take my eyes off of the closet doors. Rightfully so, too. Occasionally, I saw the door slide open, Atti peeking out at me as if to see if I was sleeping, before sinking back into the darkness. Neither of us could sleep, then. We passed the night by with intimated discussions about the people we knew who were just no longer around. We listed them off, the longer we went on, the more reluctant I became to continue. I wanted to sleep, but there might as well have been a zombie in my closet. Try sleeping with a zombie in your closet. That was your brother. And a Pokémon. A Pokémon zombie. Who talked.

Well, "zombie" was a little harsh, and frankly, I felt more like the zombie that morning. The sun was still hiding behind the overcast, and the hills for that matter. I wanted to get out of the house as early as possible. That was the only foreseeable way to avoid the eyes of the authorities. The walls never slept though, and that may have been a problem. What was also a problem was the task of waking Atti up. I tried calling for him. The first call told me that he was asleep, since there was a noticeable emptiness where his voice should have been. My next attempt to get his attention from beyond slumber was a good toss of my pillow at the closet doors. It gave them a shake, but now I couldn't get the pillow with Atti that close to it, even if he was still snoozing behind the damn doors.

I started to think that maybe the authorities snatched him while I was asleep. So, he just wasn't back there anymore. Or maybe he left my room and tried to run away, but the guys got him anyway. When all manner of ill shit began to plague my mind, I saw a certain face peer from around the sliding doors again, and the nonsense washed away. Sitting up with both arms hanging over my raised knees, I gave the kid a smirk. Good morning, Atti. I choose you.

"Did you just throw something over here?" He moaned, rubbing an eye.

"Yep. Get your ass ready. We gotta leave."

"Now? What's going on? Are those guys here?"

"No no, chill. No one's here to take you away. I'm taking you to the forest."

"Why? What's over there?"

"All those questions." I mused over the answers I could've given him. "You're just gonna to trust me on this one. I know what's on the line."

"When did you become so serious?" He retaliated, some disappointment disputing with humor in the space that was his new, high voice. He wanted answers to his limitless supply of questions, and to get my attention for that, he went down a more personal route. It forced me to think about the decisions I've started making, and how much weight came with them. In doing that, my response, or lack thereof, gave Atti some time to wake up.

"Things are gonna be real different soon." I told him, my gaze lost in the beige sheets of my bed, making miniature curves and valleys with every little movement I made.

What I told Atti was nothing more than my shallow way of expressing hopelessness.

We left the house without telling Mom, but I was sure enough noise was made to wake her up in my endeavor to stay as far away from Atti as possible. She would have been up in a couple hours, if she was sleeping at all. We didn't encounter her. We didn't encounter the authorities either, as I led my brother into a fate like Travis'. He was a distant companion, easy to lose in the indigo air, where the shapes of houses, trees, and abandoned cars still appeared as silhouettes; the windless dawn as frigid an adversary as the chill that shook your spine when walking through a hot zone on your own. But I wasn't on my own. It was worse for me, and even more so for Atti.

Reality was as cold as the morning's touch on my drooping eyelids. I couldn't leave the forest for a while once I joined Travis and Atti. I didn't go to Metedia. And you went to Metedia if you wanted to stay human. The walls would know that I wasn't there, and then the authorities would get me because they saw me leaving the woods, putting two Pokémon in a lot of danger. Or maybe they would leave the forest alone. There was a reason that they haven't expanded their "territory" into Autumnridge's woodland. I knew nothing about why. Maybe it was the meteorite. Did it drive them away? It didn't repel me. I was actually somewhat attracted to it. I would have told them that was my excuse for visiting the forest daily if something leaked about me helping the infected.

I brought my backpack, but the only things I needed from it were the three lunch bags. One was for Travis, as usual. Another was for Atti, and the last was for me. Giving my time to the sickness left me cold, tired, and hungry. I felt ill, but there was a bigger bug to catch out here.

Atti and I climbed over backyard fences and walls, avoiding the streets whenever possible. The town was soulless, which is to be expected at five in the morning. Before long, we found one of the bike trails that cut through the flora, leading into the dew-soaked destination of ours.

The river was much closer on this end of the town than Metedia. We carried on through the soggy dirt, entering the thick canopy cover after a few long strides, presumably many smaller strides for Atti back there. I turned around on occasion, making sure that he was still there, or that some large net hadn't fallen over him. He seemed to be pretty enthralled with the size of the world compared to him. He was like a child, gazing into the sky, which I guessed was how high many things appeared to go.

When we reached the bridge, Travis wasn't there. I thought he might not be, and staring into the black riverbed wasn't going to hasten the sun's trek across uncertain skies. The world was a brighter blue, dew sparkling off of the leaves in the young rays of light. That sort of image came with inspiration, which became action after a brief break on the bridge's promontory. I told Atti to follow if he wanted to. He was safer here. He decided to stay in tow.

I walked to the arching willow pathway. My brother figured out where I was going as soon as I stepped from the wooden ramp of the bridge.

"Are you going to the stone circle?" He asked, his habit of questioning me much less of a bother now that we were away from crazytown, and with that thought a smile crossed my lips.

"Mhm. Still a while before company gets here."

To my surprise, Atti didn't rush into another barrage of questions. He was still more amused with the sheer immensity of the forest, now that he was the size of an opossum. Not a peep left his mouth until the narrow mud trail took me from the main road. He noticed Nick's belongings strewn about the path in front of us. I told him not worry, though I couldn't help but worry myself when I found that Al's things were gone from the mud diversion. A linear disturbance in the ground leading to the Obsidian Circle told me that they were dragged away. I followed.

The radiant rock from the stars had a guest, nonhuman, and at peace with the life around it, ourselves not included. It was sitting with its head lifted to the meteorite, basking in its unusual warmth, round blue ears back. The creature's front shared this color, with its back a jet black, save the small yellow star attached to its tail. At its feet were Al's clothes, letterman's jacket and the like.

That was Al. I saw him before I ran. I saw the blue feline on that day my friends were stolen from Autumnridge. Al was still here.

He seemed to break free of his trance, his head turning to the side, though not quite facing me. He was aware of us.

"I won't go without a fight." He declared, bearing fangs, outlines shining in the luminescence.

"Alphonse?" I gave a soft call, reserving this situation as a moment to use that name. Seconds after I did, he lifted his haunches, turning his entire body. I was met with large, golden eyes, wide with shock.

"Bryan? I thought you were one of... You're still human."

"How'd you get here?"

"I've been here for weeks, dude. I'm hangin' out down by the..." Al froze, as if catching something distasteful in his mouth. His eyes didn't leave me as he looked away for a second or two. "I'm hanging in there."

"Really? Where are you getting food and water and all that?"

"Living off the land." That was a lie. I saw it, like a dark stain on white fabric. I knew Al enough to conclude that he didn't have any idea how to survive in the wild looking like that.

"Sure you are." I caught the fib, glancing over my shoulder to see Atti standing around, watching me with impatient beady eyes. "Hey, my brother caught the flu. I already know the forest is the safest place for him."

"Oh." It seemed like he figured out that he could trust me, assuming he didn't already. I was a human, though, and Pokémon probably didn't trust humans.

"I know you're worried about the 'police', but I gotta know where you're hiding. I'm helping another victim out, and he's been meeting me at the bridge for the last couple'o days. Between him and Atti, I don't know how much longer I'll last either.

There was a pause; an intermission of consideration for my plead. Whatever the infected had out here, I needed it for Travis and Atti, maybe my mother and I. Al recognized that.

"It's good you found me out here. We know each other well enough to keep our secrets, but you really gotta promise you won't spill any kind of info about where I'm gonna take you guys."

"Whatever we have to do to get Travis and Atti away from the mess in town." I hadn't meant to mention Travis' name to Al, or Atti for that matter.

"Travis? Travis who?"

"Uh, he goes to Metedia. Well, went. He got turned into something called a marill."

"I know a Travis. I had P.E. with him. He's the guy you're watching after?"

"It might be. When we see him, I'll ask if he knows an Al."

"I'll be there, y'know. I can just ask myself." He chuckled, giving me a shrug. It wasn't something he did with his shoulders. It was more of a slight bob of the head, but I still recognized the gesture as being a shrug.

"You guys might not recognize each other."

"Point taken. Where were you seeing him again? The bridge?"

"Yeah. I'll take us there." I turned back, forgetting that my sick brother waited behind me. I almost made the mistake of stepping too close before realizing how much that would have complicated things. "Atti, spare me some distance, man."

With the proper room given to move, I led the Pokémon out of the Obsidian Circle area, unnecessarily proud of the lucky discovery. Every few meters we walked, I glanced over my shoulder, updating myself on their presence, extinguishing paranoia that looked a lot like claustrophobia. My brother was courteous enough to hold onto Al's clothes, due in part to Atti's arms not being as occupied as Al's were. It made me wonder what I was bound to shift into. Was I to be like Al: on all fours? Or was I going to change into something like whatever Atti was? That last possibility sounded more reasonable, since he was kind of my flesh and blood (emphasis on was—I had no idea what exactly he was made out of now, and I wasn't going to try and figure that out at this moment.) The thought of transforming into a Pokémon felt more comforting knowing that Al had something in these woods to rely on. He, Atti, and Travis were enough to convince me that I was safer here, but I wasn't ready to make the big change yet. I was still human, and that was something I wanted to keep until my back was up against a wall with a mob of angry Pokémon closing in on me, or worse.

The horizon long since gave birth to the new daylight, nurturing it with the seconds and minutes that passed. But, honestly, it was still too early for Travis to come out, assuming he slept at all. Personally, I would've had monumental trouble falling asleep in a place like this. Though, with things as they were now, I was already doing just that in my own house. Travis was different. He was tolerant, and more adaptable than me. He had a great attitude. He accepted his change, which was freaking weird. How did anyone in their right mind accept something like that? Was he just more comfortable with it? Were there problems at home that he didn't have to deal with anymore? If Al actually knew this guy, which it sounded like he did, I could've just asked him. I had the impulse to do that for half of the walk, but even as we came up on the bridge, the thought still hadn't escaped my lips.

Travis was a good segue into all of this. He was communicable, and seeing how Pokémon were being kidnapped by the authorities, communication was overlooked between all of us. And the sad thing is, I kind of felt like they had the right idea—the authorities, I mean. The thought of talking to something so soon to be marked as taboo felt stupidly awkward. It felt wrong. It was like conversing with the bad guys, because they were the only ones making others transform. But they couldn't help that. They were infected: victims creating victims. Another part of why they seemed so bad was the lack of any sort of crippling blow or handicap. Usually, a sickness meant you kept to your bed for a while. Sicknesses tied you up. Something as big as this should've left you paralyzed for months, but it wasn't like that. Atti was already up and moving. Travis literally swam his ass away from the cops after he was changed. People were still competent after the shift, probably even dangerous. Pokémon had powers, or something, and on top of that, they were spreading this thing like an epidemic. Really, how far outside of Autumnridge had this already gone? Were we just believing that it didn't go anywhere because that felt good? That was bull. That was afterlife logic, so to speak. It felt good to believe that kind of thing, but it wasn't necessarily true. The infection could've been in New York for all we knew.

So yeah. Travis. He was a start. I wasn't freaking out as much about being transformed, because I knew that I was still me after the matter. I could still think and act for myself. That didn't mean it wouldn't turn everything upside down. I had places to be and things to do as this particular species.

Although, right now, that included being with these guys. So... Maybe I didn't. But I still wanted to be human.

Atti and I were concerned about keeping our voices down, but Al spoke aloud like secrecy didn't even matter. That's how safe this forest must've been.

"You'd be surprised what's been going on around here." He began, perched on the promontory, looking through gaps of the wooden beams. I was becoming more and more adept at keeping my distance. I stood on on the eastern slope, arms over the railing once again, looking out for any kind of blue sphere. Atti was near Al, clothing draped over his small shoulder.

"I don't think I can get much more surprised."

"You'd be surprised." He and I laughed at the comment.

"Well fine, I'll take your word for it. What's up?"

"It's like a fortress there. See, there's like this big clearing downstream. No one's ever been down there, but it's real close to the hospital's parking lot."

"How the hell's that safe?"

"It's safe. Trust me. The hospital's been shut down big time since the infection really hit. We did some exploring in there. Found Max snoozing away."

"No shit, seriously?! He's still in there?"

"Yeah, and it's been all overgrown and stuff. It's weird. You gotta see it. Max is still human too. I don't think he's affected by the germs."

"What, did you try poking him?"

"Topher was laying next to his face and that did nothing."

"Topher's still with you?"

"Yeah! Oh, God, you really gotta come check us out."

"Wow." I let that sink in for a few quiet moments. It was a pleasant feeling. I thought everyone I knew was just gone, but I was wrong, and happily so, now that I knew there was some kind of resistance. "Hey Al."

"Huh?"

"So what're you?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"You know... Pokémon. What Pokémon are you?"

"Oh, I'm a shinx. Electric-type. Apparently Zatch's little sister knows way too much about Pokémon. That's how most of us are figuring out our potential. She's been really helpful."

"Think she can figure out Atti?" Both of us gave him a scan. Al's lasted longer.

"I'm sure she can. Edge probably can too."

"Edge?"

"Yeah, that's was everyone else's reaction. He's this mysterious kid who came out of nowhere. He's a Pokémon that Zatch's sister can't recognize, but he knows so much about like everything, especially Laza. You know Laza?"

"Uh, no? Never heard of a Laza."

"Laza's the guy who only appears to you when you're about to transform."

"Is that who that was?" Atti spoke up, mouth wide with the shock of discovery. It took me a bit to realize my mouth was open in the same manner.

"Probably, if you saw some sort of white fox thing before your change. I saw him when he looked like someone else, but Edge says that he's changed his form. I don't know what any of it means. Hey, not to change the subject, but when do you think Travis'll show up? I don't want to make everyone think I've gone missing."

"He usually meets me just before one."

"Bryan, seriously. I bet he's still asleep."

"Well, let's go look for him. Think he'll hear us if we call for him?"

"If his ears are anything like mine, then yes. And then he'll flee." Al was right about the ears. They were a lot like his.

"Nah, he won't run if I call him."

I got to test that theory, heading down to the riverbank and calling Travis' name as though he was a pet. I tried my hardest not to convey that, but my hardest wasn't enough. And Al was laughing at me. While I was still in eyesight, I spun around, hoping that the look on my face was enough to wipe the look off of his. Then again, part of me didn't want to remove any look from his face, because he was a cat, and his smiling face was fucking adorable. So I kept searching for my fat mouse friend. What a world.

I was pushing my way through brush like an angry survivalist with no machete. No one would let me get a machete for some reason. Whatever the case, I got through it, stopping to get a grip on my bearings. Going too far in the woodland with no locational goal usually meant bad news. I decided to stop movement, giving Travis a few more calls. The only reply came from the breeze fluttering its way through the canopy. Uncomfortable in this tight sylvan tomb, I stepped back, an unnatural crunch beneath my feet alerting me. As I looked down, my heart sank like a stone. Shifting my stance, I saw two brown paper bags oriented atop one another, forming some sort of small makeshift pillow. It could've been any random litter, but the cold wrenching in my chest compelled me to believe otherwise. The hairs on my arms stood on end. I shivered, and cursed to myself.

I wanted to wait for him. I wanted to believe that he was having a swim. He liked to swim. Maybe he was having his fun further down the river. Or maybe he was already talking to Al and Atti because he heard me calling. Feeling a chilling bead of sweat roll down my neck, I hurried back to the bridge, the ridges of my jeans catching mud that I kicked up as I rushed. Al heard me coming before I could even see the bridge.

"Bryan? What's going on?"

"I think they got him!" Panicking, I slid backwards in the mud, throwing an arm out to catch the nearest object. That object was a fairly sturdy, low hanging branch. It forced me to sacrifice the skin of my palm to stay upright. "Shit!" Pulling myself up, I squeezed my wrist as a thin trail of blood leaked from the center of my palm, forming lines within the crevices in the skin. The sting was more of a bother than anything else, like the sort of pain you weren't willing to put up with, but there weren't really that many times I'd like to feel pain. I pressed my palm into my shoulder, moving ahead.

"What do you mean 'they got him'?"

"I mean I think Travis got taken!"

"How do you know?"

"I found where he was hiding. He wasn't there."

"What, wait, that doesn't mean he's gone. Maybe he did some exploring and found our place."

"Just..." I sighed, nodding a few times. That was a reasonable outcome. "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's just get over there."

We started back the way we came, an atrocious dismay locked in my chest. Pitifully, this was one of those rare moments where swallowing the key was a good idea. That made Travis the key, which in turn, made this metaphor gross. I was still panicking, and over someone I barely knew. It was ironic. I was stressing over this more than my brother's change. It was probably the most worried I've been since my father was taken. Of course, I loved my brother, and I loved my dad, but Travis was important to me in a different way, and...

"You can't get to the hospital from the streets, I don't think. It's been walled off, and I'm sure you know that Autumnridge is pretty crazily patrolled." Al began explaining. "There's a clear-ish trail coming up, but you'll still have to get your hands dirty, and it looks like you already did."

"You're calling my blood dirty."

"I guess blood's dirty. Anyway, it's not that bad. We'll reach it soon."

Another fork in the forest path was coming up. There used to be—still is, I guess—some little urban myth stating that the meandering paths in the woods changed daily on their own accord. The rumor sparked a lot of investigation: paranormal teams and all that. These were also the people who thought it was haunted. I almost believed both of those tales, more in favor of the first. There really are a huge number of forking trails around here. That's how the Circle came to be in the first place. We were all so dumbstruck by the forest, that we formed some kiddish club back in fourth grade based around treasure hunting. When we followed the little trail into the Obsidian Circle, we pissed our pants out of excitement. From there, it was kind of all downhill. We lost a member, and...

"See, it's here." Al came to a halt, lowering himself to a particular spot where intertwined twigs crossed over. The hole was barely two feet off of the ground.

"I gotta fit through that, don't I?"

"I don't remember it being this tiny. If you can't fit, you could always just turn into a Pokémon and then try it."

"Gold. Comedy gold." I clapped my hands together, wincing. I had forgotten my injury. "Well, I didn't get caught on anything looking for Travis, even with my backpack. I'll figure it out."

"It shouldn't be that hard. Here, look." Al demonstrated his finesse in front of Atti, who probably had a nice view of his ass as he squeezed through. Ears and tail low, he burrowed into the ground a few inches simply to reach the other side. When his rear was all the way through, all that was left was his tail, as if he had the intention of tripping someone. I didn't think his tail could manage that.

"Is it my turn?" Atti asked me. I responded with a shrug. "So yes, then. Okay, here Al. I'll hand you your clothes." He approached the gap, pulling the items over his shoulder.

"Careful with the jacket!"

"Your jacket was sitting in the dirt for like three weeks. I'm sure it'll be okay." Rubbing my scraped palm on my hip, I watched as the clothes were humorously dragged across the ground anyway. Atti crawled into the hole with significantly less difficulty than Al. Unfortunately, it was now my turn, and a very sobering thought crossed my mind. I was about to slither right across the ground that they had touched. Infected ground.

"Good job. Bryan? Where you at?"

"Guys, I don't think this is the best idea. Won't it just spread to me?"

"What? The Pokémonification thing?"

"Yeah, that. Well said."

"Why're you worried about that now all of a sudden?"

"You just crawled on the dirt I'm about to have my face like two inches from!"

"Ooh, yeah huh. Hey, well, you've been walking in my footsteps—literally—for the past few minutes. Feel anything weird?"

"No, I guess not." Al had a clever point. He didn't know I had also been standing on Travis' bed for a little bit. I felt fine. Tired as all hell, but fine. "I'm coming."

I dropped my backpack onto its front, pushing it under the entanglement with a foot. I felt a slight resistance, but another brief push got it through. And so I got on my knees, one hand flat on the ground, the other still on my waist. Beyond the twigs was nothing but darkness. I hardly recognized the shapes of Atti and Al. Hopefully they had given me enough space to emerge. I huffed, inching forward, using an arm to feel at the twigs above the gap. They weren't going anywhere. Accepting the brutality that was to come, I planted my chest flat on my arms and wriggled forward. The struggle was slow, as any would be. I felt the sharp ends of the twigs against my back, pulling my shirt down. Once my torso was through, I was ace. Al burrowed nicely. His small pit essentially allowed me to hump myself through the rest of the way. Repercussions there included him giggling like an idiot at me. I was too focused to care, but the laughter was acknowledged for later. Once through, I tried to stand, which led to my discovery of a low ceiling of twigs. I remained crouched, feeling closed in. The surrounding vegetation was thick enough to ward off sunlight, leaving us surrounded by a dense navy blue, shapes and shadows in all directions. I felt blind and helpless, and too tall for my own good.

"Atti, stay close. Bryan, I know you can't, so follow my voice."

"Okay. Sing a song."

"Happy birthday to you, you're an asshole."

"Hey!" I snapped with a loud whisper, pausing to pick up my backpack. "It's not my birthday, you jerk."

"Oh God, I'm so sorry."

"You should be. Dick."

"I'll make it up to you as soon as we get there."

By now, we had started moving. Sections of the dark overgrowth were lower than others, forcing me to crawl at times. Gnats pestered my ears. The mud cooled my wound. It was like exploring a cave. That wasn't a cave. With Pokémon.

"If I bump into either one of you, I'm going to just freak out."

"You shouldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"You'd transform."

"No shit, Al."

Eventually, there was enough room for me to stand at my full height. I could see the two smaller figures walking in front of me. Sight felt good to have back. I still couldn't tell exactly how cramped we were.

"Where does this lead? Really? Narnia?"

"Actually, you might have a spaz attack at how right you are."

"What, wait, what the—what?"

"'S not Narnia, but like..."

"What? What is it?"

"It's something kind of like it."

This was one of those moments where Atti and I would have looked at each other, all puzzled and whatnot, but it was still hard to see each other. Mutual facial expression were better experienced in broad light, which appeared to be coming up. A passage of white light rested at the far end of wherever we were. The light was petite, but a sight for sore eyes, and my eyes were fairly sore.

"Gettin' there, gettin' there." Al reassured us, even though Atti and I figured as much.

"Just like old times." I gave an unseen smirk. Al didn't reply verbally, but I knew he felt good about it.

The light was approaching like a train, silent as the pollen that soon filled my nostrils again. Clarity and color resumed. So soon after the silence came an ethereal hum, like the distorted song of a Church choir. It was musical, but it sounded like liquid. For some time, if there was any such thing, my world became as bright as it could ever have been, and then the warped, cosmic hum settled. When the sky melted into my eyes and the sounds of busy air came crisply to me, I knew...

…

was through.

I was on my back, palms against gentle blades of grass. The sky looked so blue. I've never seen that blue. It was clean. I felt as clean as the world was full of such vivid, unusual color. I let myself breathe again. I tilted my head to the left, and there were some faces I recognized: Al and Atti, looking back down at me.

And to my right, there were some faces I probably should have recognized: a pikachu, and the family. There was a smaller one sitting on the bigger, orange one's head—raichu, I think. And next to them was a white hedgehog, its back covered in bright grass with some pink flower near its face. They were all just watching me. Why were they doing that?

I gasped for air, turning back to my left. There was a third figure standing beside Atti. He, too, was watching me with beaming red eyes, standing taller than the other two, who were unaware of him. He was something that I should've recalled being described to me... He... was a white fox of some sort, a blue jewel embedded in his forehead. At the tips of his ears were tiny, clear orbs. The same looked true for his tail, which split into two ends. His paws were blue, as were the faint highlights along his pearl fur. No one said a thing, as he gave me the softest grin anyone could have given, before shutting his eyes, turning, and walking away. I lifted an arm, reaching for him, silently begging for his presence to keep me company.

My arm was orange, with a small blue flap of some sort connected to it. My hand looked closed, but I wasn't making a fist. It was a paw. Head centered, I lifted the other, scanning my shaking limbs. The gash on my palm had disappeared. As if waking from a nightmare, I sat up quickly, looking over my body, which a yellow ring around my neck made trickier. My legs were smaller, and I, like the stranger, appeared to have a split tail.

That stranger was gone; a ghost hiding beyond the treeline. Atti, frowning once again, came closer to me. We said nothing. There were no words for this. Al and the other Pokémon joined me, coming together and turning their heads skyward. Atti and I followed suit, both of us easily aghast at the sight the others beheld: a tree above all others, branches grander than the bases of the surrounding forest. It was lively, Pokémon wandering around and inside its open base. There were no leaves at its distant peak. Were there any, the sky would be covered in a layer of green.

It looked like home. Home looked different, but so did I. I couldn't escape this no matter how much effort I put into it.

But it won't put me down.

Bryan: Buizel


End file.
